You Never Forget

The gray-haired lady looked apprehensive but determined as she climbed onto the pretty turquoise blue bicycle. “I’m not sure I remember how to do this. I haven’t been on a bike in a long time,” she said.

“You’ll do fine, that’s something you never forget,” I assured her. “It’s easier if you go faster. Speed is your friend.” She took a deep breath and pushed off, wobbled a couple of times, and then sailed down the street. I cheered. In a minute she was back, smiling.

“My fourteen-year-old grandson is coming to live with me,” she said. “I thought maybe I could go bike riding with him. The last time I rode a bike was in Sweden, on a tandem with my husband. He crashed…and I went down with him!” We were both admiring the color of the bike when the gentleman having the yard sale walked up. “Did you find that bike at the sale next door?” he asked her. “No, it was at your sale!” she said. He shook his head. “This isn’t our bike.” He looked at it again. “Though that does look like my wife’s handwriting on the sign. I’ll go ask her.”

           

He took the sign with him, and in a moment was back. “She says she’s never seen this bike before. We have no idea whose it is. Maybe one of the other neighbors brought it over when we weren’t looking.”

We all scratched our heads over the Mystery of the Unknown Bike Seller, and then the prospective purchaser took off again. I headed back to the car and caught up with her at the corner. We called goodbye to each other and I told her to have fun. Her big smile assured me she was.

I drove off to the next sale, musing over timing. If I had been a minute earlier or later getting to that sale I’d have missed the fun. But as it was I got it (as Goldilocks said) Just Right.

Judy and I were perusing another sale this weekend and chatting with the young man and woman sitting on the porch steps. A woman stepped out of the house and addressed me by name. (This is something that usually happens to Judy, not me, since she’s lived here about 30 years longer.) It was Ann, who works at the library…and from whom we bought our house! (Hi, Ann!) The pair on the steps grew up in my house and evidently have fond memories of it. And my favorite find of the weekend was here.

A whole box o’ knitting magazines, dating from the Eighties to a couple of years ago. OMG, I am in knitter’s heaven. I am so looking forward to making may way through all this knitting wonderfulness. Thank you, Ann, you absolutely made my day! I sat down last night and had a great time pulling them all out of the box and sorting them by date. (Hey, I was a librarian and we like to organize things!) It reminded me of the fun I had when I scored a big jar of vintage buttons and got to sort and admire for hours. Though that time I did not have the somewhat odd experience of seeing my own address on the mailing labels. Wonder what the odds are of a bunch of magazines ending up years later in the house they were originally mailed to?

I think the issues from the Eighties look especially promising, with inspiring articles

(I always wear a sweater over my bikini, don’t you?) and glimpses of hair styles of yesteryear.

My husband had a good score too. He’s been looking for an elliptical machine to replace the one I found nearly 3 years ago for $15. He’s certainly gotten his money’s worth from it! Judy and I stopped at a fundraiser sale for a boy scout group and the first thing I saw was a nice looking elliptical. Called the hubs and he came to look at it. But the batteries for the display were dead, so off he went to the dollar store to get some batteries. Came back, put in the batteries, tested the machine, liked it. So off he went to get enough cash to pay for it. Came back, paid the scout leader, and talked them into delivering it to our house. Which they did, a couple of the scouts wheeling it to the door. Their eyes got wide when we indicated the machine would be going downstairs, but we let them off the hook and took it down ourselves. About halfway down I was sorry, because that sucker is heavy! But we prevailed. And when he wears this machine out I’ll know better than to agree to help get its replacement down those stairs.

Found some other fun things as well. Another cute little Christmas ornament

and I couldn’t resist these glass bubbles for fifty cents.

I’m thinking a loop of clear fishing line glued to each will turn them into fun ornaments. And while I didn’t find any glass vases for the kitchen window collection, I did score another midcentury coffee carafe.

We thought it would be good to get this collection in one place, so Steven redid the mantle on Saturday.

And the ballet corps that was there is now on the sideboard in the dining area

performing that famous work The Dance of the Driveway Bargains. I’m looking forward to my front row seat!